Kin
by Daringdoublebassist
Summary: She could only focus on the hilarity of the situation: that somehow she had attacked a vampire person with just her milk teeth and won; that her clothes had been shredded in the attack; and that Grandfather had got naked in solidarity.
1. Chapter 1

She tumbled through a blur of green, following her senses towards the child. It smelled raw, chilled, like meat frozen into snow. She hungered for this infant; longed for it in her bones. And as it came into view, she called out to her pack.

She was near, but with morning dew-drops slippery beneath her paws, it was the Beta who reached the human first. He dove forwards sticking his snout right inside the bundle. Mountainous, shaggy, drooling, he loomed, but the child did not scare. It sat up tall and defiant, and reached out to pet the beast.

 _Kin._

All the Beta's senses went wild – this child was the pack's kin. Just as they had thought. It was theirs. Why it was in this dense forest, away from the safety of the village, was another matter.

The Beta growled a little and moved aside so the child's mother could pet her.

Phasing out, Allison sat bare among the leaf litter, pulling her baby close for warmth and comfort. She could barely believe those little chubby legs could have ambled this far, but her toddler was known for bursts of terrifying speed when she saw something she wanted. Could this have been the reason she escaped her family? They would have to watch this girl more intensely.

The pack shifted around them for warmth. The child shivered in her arms, but giggled as a rough wolf tongue lapped over her forehead. Someone else let baby hands become tangled in their fur.

She could no longer hear her pack's mental thread, but even human, Allison could sense the Alpha's nearing presence.

He strutted forwards, tail held high and ears alert. A big brute, he stalked towards the womenfolk, paws crunching into the splintered branches and stiff grass. Other pack members seemed to fade into her periphery as Allison's focus piqued on her mate. Copying the Beta, he too stuck his nose deep into the blankets, then pulled out to nuzzle the child's neck.

With one snort to the pack, the Alpha's eyes willed mother and child to safety. Another wolf accompanied them back towards the village.


	2. Chapter 2

If it weren't for the howl, Bella would be doing her homework in peace and her mother would be washing her demon of a little sister. Bella studied the baby carefully from across the kitchen. Pack howls frequently interrupted them these days. She thought that The Pack Protectors should work out a new rota. It seemed that with every howl, these adults had to drop what they were doing to go and tend to the wolves' every whim. And, as they lived closest to the forest, it seemed her Mom and Papa were the most relied upon.

Her sister grunted out a laugh as Bella skidded over a patch of baby mush on the laminate flooring. Mom said she was too young to be considered actively evil, but Bella thought it wouldn't be long before this would become the baby's MO.

Though wolves were sacred to the Quileute, Bella had decided that it wasn't normal for the tribe to be slaving away for these wild animals. They weren't special, not even unique; they were just wolves. Forks had recently become home to a colony of endangered spotted frogs, but her friends there didn't report being left in charge of siblings and homes, while their parents went out to create wetlands in their back gardens!

"Bebebebebee…!" The baby was addressing her now, face and hair sticky with goo, saliva tracking over her Babygro. She offered a slimy lump of cheese as consolation for Bella's darkening thoughts.

For wild animals, these wolves were not particularly independent, she thought. Perhaps the only reason they had survived for hundreds of years was for the tribe feeding, watering, and grooming them. But it had to stop!

Charlotte seemed to taunt her as she smeared broccoli and carrot mash all over her highchair. Those pudgy little fingers were digging in to flick muck towards her sister. She was purposefully being as aggravating as possible, knowing that Bella would be the one to clear it up. And Bella's blood seared beneath her skin, because she wasn't having that!

 _No more!_

Bella surged forwards, extracting Charlotte from the chair. She flung wide the porch door, and exited into pelting rain. It cracked onto the decking and slithered over their heads, but Bella paid no mind to her sister's whimpers, only making sure she didn't slip as her bare feet slapped through mud and puddles.

Though school friends had complained of a chill in the air, Bella had no such experience. Her skin prickled and her heart beat fast beneath her ribs. Charlotte began to shiver and bawl. Forest in sight, Bella plonked the baby once – twice – into the water butt. Her parents would never know!

Her sister roared, but Bella couldn't find it within herself to care. She didn't ask for this! If her parents wanted a sitter, they should pay her, same as they did Sam! She was done with being the skivvy of this family!

"Ah. Two for the price of one."

Bella flinched and almost drowned her sister. A woman was approaching from the dense tree-line. Short blonde hair slickened across her face, and crimson-nails shone in the mist. Her face was so white it looked grey. This woman was sick.

Charlotte, freshly yanked from the butt, quietened. Her hands fisted in her sister's t-shirt sleeves, all previous drama forgotten.

And Bella caught a whiff of the strongest smell: unwashed body, sweet like candy, an undertone of rotting vegetables. It made her gag. She trembled reflexively.

The woman smirked at them, shining a row of diamond teeth. Bella's fear skyrocketed. She pushed Charlotte to the grass, and stepped in front of her.

"Main course." The woman told her, before looking to the baby; "Dessert." And Bella felt her skin split in two as, with no prior intention of doing so, she lunged for the woman.


	3. Chapter 3

Something shifted within her. Bella went for the woman's face with her hands, but met her neck with her teeth. It wasn't flesh her jaws clamped onto, it was hard and textured like clay. One more snap, and teeth punctured the porcelain skin. Something vile poured onto her tongue: peppery, thick, sharp. Bella shook her head to spit out the substance, but in doing so took the woman's head clean off her shoulders. It fell into a puddle and sank face down.

The body continued with its attack: limbs flailed; fingers curled into claws, slashing through her skin. Bella whimpered, but her baby sister's presence behind her forced her to push forwards. An arm clattered away from them, followed by a leg. And then Charlotte began to snuffle.

Bella dropped the body and stood, holding it down. She turned to her sister and her eyes met the gaze of a gigantic, hairy beast. A La Push wolf, she decided; a member of the pack her parents cared for.

It seemed fairly friendly, chuffing into Charlotte's wispy hair, but wiping its jowls along her neck seemed a step too far. Bella decided not to trust it with the baby.

Another wolf darted from behind the house, and sniffed over the clay woman's discarded head. With one paw, it thumped at the body part, which bobbed and rolled in the deep puddle, face returning to the surface hissing and spitting. The body twitched almost instinctively, but Bella bounced it into submission. The wolves' heads swayed curiously.

And then the one beside her sister started to grow. Legs lengthened, and claws rounded into fingers. The pelt faded, replaced by skin. The great shaggy head became humanoid, snout shrinking and teeth conferring. It balanced on hind paws, and stood as if human. And then Bella realised, it was human. It was her Grandfather. She barked out a scream and stepped off the body.

The remaining arm and leg took this opportunity to struggle off towards the neglected head, but without words Grandfather drew a lighter and lobbed it at the torso. Flames licked along the ground, rendering all nearby limbs to blackened ash. He gestured Bella aside as though moving her away from his view of a television, and took out another lighter for the head.

The baby clapped her hands as if entertained by this horror. It must be the adrenaline, Bella thought, for she must be chilled now in the rain. Where previously the water butt had cleaned, now mud coated those tiny, fat features.

And Bella felt cold – achingly so.

Her Grandfather approached, and swept one of his big hands over her head.

"Hello cub."

He scratched her neck, and Bella thought how strange it was that it felt nice – comforting. She'd never had someone scratch her neck before.

"Let's get you back to human, eh?"

Bella stared at her Grandfather incomprehensibly. She was human. What else could she be but human?

"Just think of making a cup of tea with your hands, or eating sandwich. Or washing your hair, or tying shoe laces…" She must have focused on one of those ideas, for a moment later his hands were patting her shoulders in such encouragement that was knocked sideways into the dirt.

How strange, she thought, that my clothes have disappeared.

Her mind paused.

 _My clothes have disappeared!_

"What did you do with my jeans, Grandfather?! Where is my t-shirt?" She regarded him with growing horror as she realised he too was lacking these basic amenities. "Why are you naked?"

To her confusion and embarrassment, her Grandfather recoiled, and told her "You're Bella!"

"Of course I am! Why are we naked?"

"You're Bella." He repeated, and then caught a garment the other wolf retrieved from the hedgerows and flung in their direction. "Wear that, it's long."

She pulled the sopping outfit over her head, and tucked it over her knees. One of Uncle Connor's favourite t-shirts. What was this doing in their driveway?

Grandfather shimmied into a pair of cargo pants, and attended now to Charlotte. She sneezed and coughed, and huddled into his bare chest with profoundly less compunctions than Bella.

"You're Bella." He huffed, "Too young to phase."

"Phase?" She shivered in the t-shirt, wondering how she could be so completely hot one minute and icy the next. The other wolf moved forwards, panting, and set its paw delicately over the hand that fisted in her borrowed t-shirt.

"Are you injured, Bella?"

"No." She didn't feel injured, she just felt cold.

"Let's get to Old Quil's place." He addressed the wolf this time.


	4. Chapter 4

Old Quil's place was much warmer than her own sodden, muddy driveway. A fire was lit in the lounge, and that was where they congregated. Charlotte was fed and bathed by somebody who had been fetched from the meeting hall, and put to bed in front of the fire. Still, she shivered and sniffled.

Bella had slipped around in the bathroom getting warm and clean, before emerging to blankets and steaming fish pie. It was too early for dinner, and she shouldn't have felt hungry, but maybe it was the excitement of murdering another human being that made her scarf her meal in about three spoonfuls.

"It was murder, wasn't it?"

She voiced miserable thoughts to Grandfather.

"You'll have to tell Dad, and then he'll arrest me." Realising the food she'd consumed was sticking to the back of her throat, she pushed the bowl towards the coffee table and lent back into the couch. This may be the last night she would spend in her hometown. She'd better enjoy this comfort while she could.

Didn't Washington State still use the death penalty?

Her Grandfather saved her from this train of thought. "It wasn't murder. It was self-defence." He nodded to Charlotte on the opposite couch. "You saved your sister."

"I didn't mean to go for her." She told him, worriedly. "But when I did, it was like she just… broke."

"Vampires do that," He muttered. "After the muscle and tissue rots away, they're left with this hard exterior."

"Vampires?"

"Cold ones. Don't you remember the stories, Bella?"

She did remember the stories. Everybody knew those stories. They were extolled proudly at every bonfire, but nobody believed them to be true. Cold ones; giant shape-shifting wolves – the stuff of legend.

The rain-spattered wolf remained keeping watch on the back-porch steps. Every so often, the enormous head would swing around and he would meet her eyes. His gaze seemed intelligent.

"That's what you killed." Grandfather told her. "That's why Ephraim is keeping watch over there." He pointed to the wolf. "Because there are some still on the loose and we don't want any coming further in."

"You named your wolf Ephraim?" She barely felt able to concentrate. She couldn't think that these nightmarish people were still around. It made her skin crawl. She could only focus on the hilarity of the situation: that somehow she had attacked a vampire person and won; that her clothes had been shredded in the process and Grandfather had got naked in solidarity; and now Grandfather was telling her of his wolf which was named after one of his best friends.

Maybe it wasn't named after his best friend, maybe it was named after his ancestor? She let loose a little giggle and felt the breath leave her lungs, and surprisingly, tears spring into her eyes.

"He isn't _my_ wolf, Bella. He isn't even really a wolf. He is Ephraim Black II." Grandfather reached out to cup her chin. He pressed the back of his hand into her forehead and grimaced.

"He is not Mr Black. Mr Black is human." She giggled a little more, helpless to catch her breath. The wolf on the steps seemed to roll his eyes.

"Mr Black is a shifter, just the same as you and me." Grandfather's voice had hardened. He looked stern. She couldn't fathom any of it.

"But I am not a wolf." Bella felt as though she was repeating herself. Surely they had been over this before. "I am human. And you are human. Although you were briefly a wolf." She snickered again. "But I'm sure I must've bumped my head or something, because that's impossible."

"Maybe you did." Someone else had joined the conversation now. It was Old Quil – the owner of this cushy couch she was sinking into, giggling. He leant over her and looked into her tired eyes. "Has she eaten, Levi?"

Grandfather nodded. "She doesn't believe we are wolves."

"We can show you, if you don't believe us."

"I don't believe you." Maybe it was rude to laugh at them, for both their faces darkened, but as Grandfather hauled her into his arms and out onto the porch, and Old Quil stripped his tunic, Bella did wonder when the tribal elders had become so engaged in exhibitionism.

 _ **A/N:**_ _Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and favourited so far. Your support is so nice! I write cathartically, so to be appreciated for what I write is lovely._

 _To guest reviewer Debbie Hicks, many thanks for your tips for chapter 4. I have deleted the review because I think you should get an account, write that up, and publish it as your own story. Let me know when you've done so, I'd like to read it._


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